The words stirred him as much as the voice of the Lord stirred Samuel. He read the verse in James which says, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not and it shall be given him’ ( James 1:5). Even as a boy he knew that in such diversity of ideas and ordinances, not all could be the truth. “Joseph Smith wanted to find the peace of salvation also, but he was confused as to which church was right. Hinckley, October 1993 general conference, “My Testimony” Was it not time, as a great age of enlightenment began to dawn upon the world, that these, the Father and the Son, should reveal Themselves to show their form and power and living reality, and thus declare, once and for all, the true nature of Deity?” “Is it strange that James, writing anciently, would invite all who lacked wisdom to ask of God in faith? (See James 1:5.) Is it strange that such prayer would receive an answer? I thank the Lord for the faith to believe that the answer to that prayer came with a glorious manifestation of the Eternal Father and His Beloved Son, to part the curtain after centuries of darkness and open a new and promised and final dispensation of the gospel. Could there have been a stronger endorsement? So what? I find security for my faith in the simplicity of his narrative, in its lack of argument, in its straightforward reasonableness and in the fact that he sealed his testimony with his life’s blood. They have made much of the fact that there were several versions and that the account as we now have it was not written until 1838. I have read the words of critics, who from 1820 until now have tried to destroy the validity of that account. I have stood among the trees where Joseph knelt as a boy, and heard the whisperings of the Spirit that it happened as he said it happened. “I thank my Father in Heaven for the testimony I have of the reality of the First Vision. Richard Lloyd Anderson, former Brigham Young University professor of ancient scripture, in the August 1988 Ensign article “The First Presidency of the Early Church: Their Lives and Epistles” Both demand high moral standards, and both tell what it means to pray fervently and have full faith.” “Belief is blended into action in Jesus’ great sermon and in James’ letter. James repeats many of Jesus’ teachings but stresses the Sermon on the Mount, paraphrasing four of the nine beatitudes in wording similar to that of Matthew’s record. “James was probably the oldest brother after Jesus (see Matthew 13:55), and had full opportunity to hear the private and public message of the Lord. He died while praying that his persecutors would be forgiven. Instead, James bore a powerful testimony of Christ and was thrown to the ground and stoned. Jewish leaders then forced James to stand on a temple wall at Passover and demanded that he deny Jesus before the massed pilgrims. Deeply respected in the Jewish community for his godly and prayerful life, the apostle was called ‘James the just.’ But he lost civil protection when the Roman governor died. Eusebius quotes Hegesippus, a second-century Jewish Christian, who told the following details concerning James’ death: Jewish leaders waited for retribution against James, the brother of the Lord. “The letter would thus have been written between that time and the death of the Lord’s brother in A.D. Then, the Church was only beginning to spread to areas around Israel but soon afterward the great missionary expansion created the need of Christian literature to instruct new converts. “A letter ‘to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad’ would hardly seem appropriate before the death of James, the brother of John (A.D. 44, the only James mentioned in the New Testament is the brother of Jesus. As mentioned earlier, after the brother of John was killed by Herod in A.D. Two candidates fit these conditions: the brother of John and the brother of the Savior. “Only a general authority would address spiritual Israel, giving commands and counsel to the whole Church, and only a well-known James would write without need of further identification. “Which James wrote the epistle of that name? It begins with a confident ‘James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad’ ( James 1:1). This week’s “ Come, Follow Me” study guide covers the Epistle of James, which includes James 1:5 - the scripture that helped usher in the Restoration.Ĭhurch News recently searched the archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to learn what leaders and scholars have said about these chapters.
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